Wheeling register. [volume] (Wheeling, W. Va.) 1878-1935, 1887-09-15
THE PAST vs. THE FUTURE.
What a welI.Informed Gentleman Has I
Say of the Bridge Project.

/ What q Well.Informed Gentleman Has to
Say of the Bridge Project.
A REGISTER reporter yesterday met
Mr.. o. Russell Wood, q director of the
company proposing TO build the link Of
railroad between the present terminus ofthe
| Wheeling and Lake Erie at BOwerstown,
and the western approach of the proposed
Union railroad bridge, and the reporter
learned something which he hopes will be
of interest to the people of this city.
He learned that the proposition to bridge
the Ohio river at this point vas FIRST made
to Wheeling by the Wheeling and Lake
Erie Railroad Company, considerable de,
pending upon the manner and readiness
with which this city accepted it. The
proposition was accepted, aud under its
provisions,
OHIO COUNTY
and Wheeling voted $35O,000 to tie
bridge and $3.50, 900 to the Wheeling and
Lake Erie Railroad Company.
This was subsequently, declared uncon-
stitutional, and the W. & L. E. dwindled,
and was comparatively lost sight of for a
time, and the bridge project Was dropped,
or at least little Was heard OF it, except as
one of Wheeling's failures, without even a
monument to mark it and bear the date Of
its demise.
However, the Keystone Bridge Company
of Philadelphia, sent a corps Of engineers
to Wheeling, who made q careful survey
and estimate o. tAe cost. They located
the bridge and drew plans aud sR~ecihca-
tions, which were afterwards presented to
and accepted by the Secretary Of War. The
Keystone Bridge Company made a bid for
doing the work, and agreed to have it COM
pleteT eEf
READY foK uAE
in one years time from the date of the
bids acceptance.
The declaring of the vote of Wheeling
unconstitutional caused thoughts of the
bridge t. leave the minds of all but q few,
and the scheme lay 6ormGpt tor Eeveral
years.
However, when Commodore Garrison
took hold of the Wheeling and Lake Erie
he turned all the rights and privileges that
company held in the bridge over to the
Wheeling and Harrisburg Railway Com
pany, which had bean organized by Hon.
II. II. Cochran and several other gentlemen
of Wheeling and Martins Ferry, who had
Eastern capitalists interested with them.
The intention of this company was to build
the bridge aud q railroad to connect at
some p6:r. in Western Pennsylvania with
the
SOUTH PENN ROAD,
giving 4 direct route from Wheeling to the
East, and with the short link from the
W. & L. z. a shorter route than now exists
from this city TO Chicago and the West.
Hon. r. H. Cochran, OF Toledo, o, is
now President of the Wheeling and Har-
risburg road, and the directors, aside from
those residing in New York, are DR.. Geo.
Baird and W. T. Peterson of this city and
Joel Wood Of Martins Ferry. Mr.. Coch-
ran is putting forth his energies 10 have
the link of road between Martins Ferry
and Bowerstown built. He is also ardor-
ously engaged in arranging for the consul
nation Of the Union bridge plans, aud has
made partial arrangements for the build
ing Of the road east of Wheeling.
1t now remains for Wheeling and Ohio
county to do all in their power to
HELP THE MATTER
along. and we may in less time than the
most sanguine contemplate, see your city
on the line of a direct route from the East
to the West, besides holding in her hands
the connecting link. Aside from the direct
route mentioned, Wheeling will also be
placed in close communication with q host
Of good towns in Northern and Eastern
Ohio, which now 60 to Cleveland, Toledo
and Pittsburg to trade and do their shop.
ping" The building of the bridge makes
the connecting link between the W. & L.
E at Bowerstown 8 certainty, and the
building of that road brings no less than
twenty short roads which now start no
where and end nowhere, into the funnel
which has its apex at Wheeling, while its
mouth embraces the whole Of NOrthern and
Eastern Ohio.